Aja Brown Quotes

Growing up, I looked to people who had the same issues as me and were still living great lives.

My mom was always my biggest teacher, my inspiration, my role model. My mom was just the most amazing person. She was like a bon vivant in that she just lived each day to the fullest. As soon as I became a vegetarian, she became a vegetarian.

From being a little girl in the projects, going through all of the mess that I was going through, to ending up at the Inauguration for the first African-American president, I'm speechless right now because I never thought I'd - I never ever - I couldn't even see that far. Even when I ended up in the music business, I couldn't see that.

The most authentic thing about us is our capacity to create, to overcome, to endure, to transform, to love and to be greater than our suffering.

I just want people to know you can get through stuff. I hope people can see that in what my life has been and where it is going.

I cannot save the world; that's not what I'm trying to do. I guess I'm just trying to walk the walk and be an example to those that want it. Not everybody does, but if Mary J. Blige can come out of that same hole you were in, then you can do it, too - that's my goal: to do that without saying it, but actually live it.

I want to represent... to the kids to draw strength from me. So they can see that everybody goes through something, but you can rise up and do your best. Just try.

I want a kid to look at me and say, 'You know what, this man had no chance in life, but he stayed in there, and he worked hard. He dedicated himself, and he did it'.

The theme of my life is overcoming. It is my personal mantra and what I help other people do.

I am listening to a book by the guy who founded Nike, and I can relate to it. He struggled.

I had to overcome a lot of things, but with that, I've inspired a lot of people.

People do look up to me and it makes me feel good. I made it out of a bad situation and I didn't mind bettering myself and I think that is what people respect. Most people go backwards but I was able to look at the big picture.

We should take heart from our own experience and performance. In a cynical world we have become an inspiration to many.

I'm a role model. I have overcome the negativity, and I'm playing.

Oprah is wildly successful, and she's a brilliant businesswoman. She's also somebody who's overcome a ton of demons in her own life, and that's really what shaped her. I think the same could be said for me.

When I was growing up, Brandy was TV star, reality star, a pop star, a Cover girl, Grammy winner, had her own Brandy doll, and was the first African American to play Disney princess Cinderella. Most importantly, she is a survivor. Many only judge and remember a person's most recent failure.

We acquire the strength we have overcome.

As a single mother of four, my mother taught me that you always want to show up strong for the moments that really matter with family, friends, and community. I now recognize how her strength helped shape the person I am today and the mother that I have become.

Where I am today... I still have my ups and downs, but I take it one day at a time and I just hope that I can be the best that I can possibly be, not only for myself, but also young people that are out there today that need someone to look up to.

I had to overcome challenge after challenge in order to take my life from nothing to living my dreams.

The person I am every single day is the person that's growing and getting better. The more people look up to me, the more important it is to be concise with what message I want to leave. That's where I feel like I'm a role model. Maybe not to everyone, but for a lot of minorities, I am, and I kinda love that - the role model for the underdog.

All it takes is one teacher - just one - to save us from ourselves and make us forget all the others.

I am lucky to have had an attentive, curious and loving dad and heart-smart, down-to-earth, gifted mother. They changed the outlooks of their own lives and have never forgotten the people and organizations that helped them dream bigger than their circumstances should have allowed.

I want to be inspiring to myself, to my kids, my family, and my friends.

For me, growing up in a ridiculously poor family living in dead-end neighborhoods, Superman was a deeply personal icon, one that said you can do anything if you put your mind to it. What he stood for formed the core of who I wanted to be as I grew up, and informed how I view the world and my responsibilities to other people.